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Facebook just added the @mentions feature, which allows you to include other Facebook users in your status updates. If you use Twitter, the @name symbology will look very familiar to you.
While I haven’t played around with it a whole lot yet, the feature lets you mention another Facebook user, list their name like @mary, and then opens up a drop down menu of all your friends named Mary, from which you can select the actual friend you were talking about.
There is an auto-suggestion feature to help you cull through your list if you know a lot of people named Mary. Once you mention someone using the @, they get a notification and it also show up in their Wall- it’s almost like posting to their Wall without having to go to their profile.
The new feature allows you to include individual users, as I’ve mentioned, but you can also include brand names (through their Facebook pages), events and groups. When you monitor your friend’s status updates, all the links are clickable, so you can see exactly who your friends are talking about and hanging out with.
These changes have a few key implications for marketers.
First, you will gain from fostering overlapping connections within your social networks. If you (like me) tend to update mostly on Twitter, you might want to start spending some time in Facebook too, and highlighting your connections there. This will help “place” you within a social context that will build your reputation and influence.
Second, you will need to be even more careful about what you share online, as there will be greater transparency about what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with if you use the @mentions feature.
Third, you should get into Facebook and get your fan page and profile fully set up, so when people mention you and link to you, you’re putting your best profile forward.
And while you’re in there, please connect with me on Facebook!
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One of the biggest challenges we entrepreneurs face today is keeping sales coming in. With the current economic situation, it becomes more and more crucial that we each use all of the tools we have to sell more. No matter what your business, you are first a marketer, and second, a salesperson.
This is uncomfortable for many of us in professional services, as we just want to do our “art” and leave the marketing and sales to someone else.
I wanted to be sure you that you are aware of a book launch which is happening today- the book is “How to Sell When Nobody’s Buying (And How to Sell Even More When They Are)- and is written by my good friend, Dave Lakhani, who is one of the top sales trainers in America, in addition to being a best-selling author, high paid speaker, and regularly appearing in national media. You might have seen him on the Today Show or The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch (when that was still on the air.)
In any case, Dave’s new book is out now, and is a must read for every small business owner. The reviews of this book are extremely positive, with people saying that the wisdom in this $15 book is worth more than information found in many $497 infoproducts.
(And we both know how many of those you’ve invested in, right?) (My bookshelf is full of them.)
Anyway, I’m promoting the book today because it is excellent, and I want you to get it, read it, and apply it. You’ll get sales advice starting in Chapter 0 (yes, the book has a chapter zero), and this chapter, alone, is worth the price of the book.
You’ll learn how to use social media to increase your visibility and brand recognition (thanks to chapters contributed by me, and Facebook/Twitter guru Mari Smith), and you’ll get inspired by some motivational interviews with people who have overcome tremendous obstacles to achieve meaningful results.
You can learn more about the book here: http://www.HowToSellWhenNobodysBuying.com – and can even read a sample chapter.
Don’t wait, because in business, time wasted is money lost.
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